Operation Varsity Blues sounds and reads like an episode in a police drama. US authorities allege dozens of wealthy parents, including top executives and actors, paid a total of $25m to help their children win places at leading US universities including Yale and Stanford, through two schemes that involved paying bribes. The scandal is an extreme, and illegal, example of wealth being abused to game college admissions. It also highlights the extent to which the admissions process is skewed in favour of the rich and privileged.
A criminal complaint filed in Boston alleges the scam was run for seven years by William Singer, a former high school basketball coach. Parents had two options: the first was to have their children claim medical disabilities and take tests in facilities with bribed staff. Alternatively, university coaches were paid to designate children as student-athletes, increasing their odds of entry. Parents were charged up to $75,000.
The admissions scam is one of the largest ever uncovered. Its practices are indefensible. They not only enabled those with financial means to win places for offspring who might not otherwise qualify, they cheated potentially more able applicants out of those places. Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts, who announced the charges, is right to declare that “there can be no separate college admissions system for the wealthy”.